Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted for the first time that he gave the green light to the pager attack on the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in September, Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri told Agence France-Presse today.
Speaking during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he had approved the operation, for which no one has yet claimed responsibility, Dostri said, confirming reports in Israeli media.
Pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded on September 17 and 18 in the southern suburbs of Beirut, as well as in southern and eastern Lebanon, the movement’s strongholds.
The explosions killed 39 people and injured about 3,000, Lebanese authorities said.
Although the operation may have resembled the activities of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Israeli authorities have never openly claimed responsibility for the attacks, nor have they mentioned it.
In support of the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, firing daily into Israeli territory from southern Lebanon.
These hostilities escalated into open war on September 23 of this year with intense Israeli attacks, mainly against strongholds of the Lebanese movement.
The Israeli military also launched a ground offensive in Lebanon on September 30.
More than 2,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, most of them civilians, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Source: Beta/AFP
